Alberta enters 2027 in a period of significant economic uncertainty. Global trade pressures, geopolitical instability, rapid technological change and shifting investment patterns are increasing competition for capital, talent and major projects. Against this backdrop, businesses need stability, predictability and confidence to make long-term investment decisions.

While Alberta cannot control decisions made by other governments or jurisdictions, it can control the conditions it creates for businesses here at home. Maintaining a competitive fiscal environment, providing regulatory certainty, addressing workforce challenges and investing in trade-enabling infrastructure are among the most important tools available to strengthen Alberta’s economy.

Budget 2026 made progress on several priorities advanced by Calgary’s business community, including targeted post-secondary enrolment expansion, research investment, municipal infrastructure and important work toward expanding west-coast energy market access. The Calgary Chamber commends government for making progress on these initiatives.

However, several important competitiveness challenges remain unresolved. Budget 2026 did not address longstanding Chamber recommendations related to the Insurance Premium Tax, Alberta’s small business tax, provincial procurement, foreign credential recognition, employer-led productivity supports, supply-chain infrastructure, municipal financing tools and downtown public safety.

Budget 2027 presents an opportunity to build on progress made while addressing outstanding barriers to investment and economic growth.

The Calgary Chamber encourages the Government of Alberta to focus on five priorities:

1. Maintaining a competitive and predictable tax and investment environment;
2. Improving regulatory efficiency and major-project execution;
3. Ensuring businesses can access the talent and skills required to grow;
4. Supporting innovation, commercialization and productivity; and
5. Investing in the infrastructure required to connect Alberta businesses to domestic and international markets.

Recommendations for Inclusion in Budget 2027

Budget 2026 advanced several investments crucial to supporting Alberta’s business community. The Calgary Chamber continues to advocate for important initiatives to support the business community and its workforce, with specific recommendations detailed below. 

Tax competitiveness & business affordability

Investment capital is increasingly mobile. Alberta must therefore continue to evaluate its competitiveness not only against other Canadian provinces, but against jurisdictions across North America competing for the same capital, businesses and workers.

Businesses need confidence that the tax and regulatory environment in which an investment is made will remain reasonably stable over the life of that investment. Budget 2027 should reinforce Alberta’s commitment to fiscal discipline while reducing costs that discourage entrepreneurship, investment and business expansion. The province should focus on structural drivers of business affordability rather than temporary relief.

1. Eliminate the provincial small business tax to reduce costs for entrepreneurs and strengthen Alberta’s competitiveness. Alberta’s two per cent small business tax represents capital – anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 annually per small business – that could otherwise be reinvested into employees, productivity-enhancing equipment, technology and business growth. Reducing the tax burden on small businesses would complement Alberta’s broader competitive tax environment while supporting businesses facing persistent labour, financing and operating cost pressures.
2. Lower the Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) to address a growing cost burden on small and medium sized businesses. Insurance is a necessary cost of doing business, particularly in capital-intensive sectors and industries facing significant property, liability and climate-related risks. Applying a tax to already rising insurance premiums compounds those pressures. 
3. Where gaps remain in federal support, provide targeted and time-limited provincial assistance to Alberta businesses materially affected by tariffs and trade disruption. Provincial measures should complement, rather than duplicate, federal programs and focus on helping viable businesses adapt, diversify markets and maintain investment and employment.
4. Introduce tax measures that preserve Alberta’s investment advantage, including accelerated capital-cost deductions or equivalent productivity incentives, in response to Ontario’s new Competitiveness Tax Cut, announced on October 28.

Regulatory efficiency & investment certainty

Businesses require clear, predictable and timely regulatory processes to make major investment decisions. Strong environmental, safety and consultation standards are essential, but overlapping requirements, unclear processes and regulatory duplication can increase costs, delay projects and discourage investment.

1. Continue working with the federal government to advance coordinated review processes for major projects, with the goal of reducing unnecessary duplication between provincial and federal requirements. Where appropriate, Alberta should pursue equivalency, substitution and coordinated review mechanisms across areas such as impact assessment, environmental regulation, emissions policy and consultation.
2. Establish clear service standards and timelines for major project approvals, across ministries and regulators involved with major project development. Where projects require approvals from multiple provincial bodies, the government should provide clear coordination through a lead agency or project navigation function.
3. Maintain a stable and predictable TIER framework that provides businesses with long-term clarity on compliance requirements, carbon pricing and credit-market operation, while preserving a credible made-in-Alberta system that supports competitiveness and investment in emissions-reduction projects. Alberta should actively participate in the new federal-provincial-territorial carbon markets working group and broader federal benchmark discussions to improve alignment, market functioning and certainty for businesses and investors.
4. Improve access to Government of Alberta procurement opportunities for SMEs and Indigenous-owned businesses. Budget 2027 should support: breaking large procurements into appropriately sized opportunities where practical; reducing unnecessary bonding and insurance requirements for low-risk contracts; simplifying administrative processes; and providing clearer support for businesses navigating government procurement. Government procurement can also play an important role in helping Alberta businesses establish customers, demonstrate new technologies and scale.
5. Advance the next phase of internal trade reform. While significant progress has been made of mutual recognition of goods, further work is required on: labour mobility, credential recognition, transportation rules and permitting, procurement and sector-specific regulatory barriers. Reducing internal trade friction can lower business costs, improve supply-chain resilience and expand market opportunities for Alberta companies.

Talent, labour & workforce development

Alberta’s economic growth increasingly depends on its ability to develop, attract and retain workers. The province’s own Alberta Jobs Strategy recognizes that demographic change, technological disruption and evolving labour-market needs require closer coordination between employers, educators and government.

1. Accelerate recognition of internationally acquired credentials. Implement the recommendations of the Foreign Credential Advisory Committee and continue reducing unnecessary barriers preventing internationally trained professionals from working at the level of their skills and qualifications. The province should establish measurable timelines for credential assessment and continue working with professional regulators to ensure requirements are transparent, proportionate and focused on demonstrated competency.
2. Use provincial immigration programs strategically to address persistent labour shortages in occupations essential to Alberta’s economic growth. Provincial immigration priorities should be informed by employer demand and labour-market evidence, while providing sufficient predictability for employers and prospective workers to plan effectively.
3. Expand employer-led training, reskilling and upskilling supports to help businesses respond to changing skills needs, including AI, automation and digital transformation, while improving access to flexible pathways such as micro-credentials and continuing education.
4. Provide long-term childcare funding certainty. Continue working with the federal government toward a durable childcare funding agreement that provides predictability for families and childcare providers. Affordable and accessible childcare supports labour-force participation and contributes to Alberta’s ability to attract and retain workers.
5. Support housing supply as workforce-enabling infrastructure. Support increased housing supply by reducing barriers to development and ensuring municipal infrastructure keeps pace with population growth. Housing availability and affordability directly affect Alberta’s ability to attract and retain workers and should be considered an important part of the province’s broader workforce and economic competitiveness strategy.

Innovation, commercialization & economic diversification

Alberta has made significant investments in research and innovation. The next challenge is ensuring more Alberta-based ideas move from research and development through demonstration, commercialization and scale. Budget 2027 should focus on creating the conditions for greater private sector innovation investment, improving commercialization outcomes and strengthening sectors where Alberta has a credible competitive advantage.

1. Establish clear provincial rules for responsible data centre development that support investment while protecting electricity affordability, water security and efficient land use. The framework should provide clarity around: appropriate siting and land use, electricity supply and grid impacts, water requirements and security, generation and transmission infrastructure, self-supplied energy opportunities, project approval requirements, and expectations for economic and community benefits. Alberta has an opportunity to attract significant data-centre and digital infrastructure investment, but growth in the sector should be managed so that it does not create undue cost, infrastructure or resource pressures for households, businesses and communities.
2. Establish a predictable and competitive provincial incentive for research, development and commercialization activity undertaken in the province. The incentive should support businesses of different sizes, reflect the capital-intensive nature of innovation and key sectors and align with federal SR&ED processes where practical to reduce administrative burden and strengthen Alberta’s competitiveness for innovation investment.
3. Build on Alberta’s investments in post-secondary research by strengthening pathways from research to demonstration and commercial deployment. Supporting industry-led pilots, demonstration projects, intellectual property development and stronger connections between research institutions, businesses and private capital can help ensure Alberta-generated intellectual property and technologies translate into Alberta-based investment, companies, productivity improvements and jobs.
4. Strengthen provincial mechanisms that help promising Alberta companies move from commercialization into growth and scale, including through tools such as loan guarantees, co-investment and other financing mechanisms that address demonstrated market gaps. Public investment should be structured to attract and leverage private capital rather than displace it, helping commercially viable Alberta companies scale while retaining investment, jobs and intellectual property in the province. Increasing access to capital for Small and Medium-Sized enterprises, enabling them to grow enhances the resilience of Alberta’s economy.
5. Maintain clear and durable policy frameworks for capital-intensive industries making long-term investment decisions in Alberta. Programs such as the Alberta Petrochemicals Incentive Program (APIP) and Alberta Carbon Capture Incentive Program (ACCIP) should provide sufficient certainty for proponents assessing major investments with long development and operating horizons.
6. Continue targeted efforts to develop sectors where Alberta has credible competitive advantages, including aerospace, advanced manufacturing, agriculture and agri-food, technology, clean technology and film and television. Government support should focus on areas where Alberta has demonstrated competitive advantage and where initiatives can become commercially sustainable.

Infrastructure, trade & market access

Alberta’s economic competitiveness depends on the ability to move people, goods, energy and information efficiently. Trade-enabling infrastructure should be viewed as an economic competitiveness investment that connects Alberta businesses to customers, strengthens supply chain resilience and supports long-term growth.

1. Advance energy market access infrastructure. Continue to advance commercially viable infrastructure that improves Alberta’s access to domestic and international markets. The province should work with the private sector, other governments and Indigenous partners to address regulatory, infrastructure and financing barriers affecting projects of national economic significance.
2. Adopt integrated, growth-oriented infrastructure planning. Align provincial infrastructure planning with population growth, housing development, industrial expansion and emerging economic opportunities. This should include coordinated planning for transportation, electricity generation and transmission, water and wastewater, housing-enabling infrastructure and community services so infrastructure constraints do not become a barrier to investment or growth. A more integrated approach would help ensure rapidly growing communities have the infrastructure required to support new residents, businesses and major economic development opportunities.
3. Close remaining highway and rural cellular connectivity gaps. Build on provincial broadband investment by identifying and addressing remaining cellular dead zones along provincial highways and in underserved communities. Where private deployment is uneconomic, targeted partnerships between governments and industry should be used to address persistent gaps.
4. Advance strategic investments in road, rail, airport, intermodal and economic corridor infrastructure that improve supply-chain reliability and connect Alberta businesses to domestic and international markets. Infrastructure planning should focus on removing bottlenecks, improving access to ports and border crossings, strengthening regional and airport connectivity, and supporting projects such as the Prairie Economic Gateway that enhance Alberta’s role as a trade, logistics, manufacturing and distribution hub.
5. Support municipalities in using prudent, diversified financing tools to advance critical infrastructure amid population growth. Clear guidance and coordination on financing tools, such as municipal bonds, can help cities accelerate projects, protect taxpayers, and maintain service levels without adding pressure to provincial budgets.

Community resilience & economic competitiveness

Strong communities are an important component of Alberta’s economic competitiveness. Businesses depend on communities that are safe, affordable and capable of attracting and retaining workers.

1. Support safe and economically vibrant downtowns. Continue working with the City of Calgary, businesses and community partners to improve public safety downtown, on transit and in surrounding communities, while addressing the underlying mental health, addictions and social challenges contributing to disorder. Safe and welcoming public spaces support business investment, tourism, talent attraction and Calgary’s competitiveness as a major economic centre.
2. Maintain clear and predictable provincial funding commitments for Calgary’s Green Line so the project can proceed with greater certainty for businesses, communities and future development. Major transit infrastructure supports labour mobility, housing development and access to employment while providing the certainty needed for log-term investment along the corridor.
3. Increase the use of multi-year funding agreements for organizations delivering provincially supported services, including greater flexibility to fund core operating costs where appropriate. Longer funding horizons can reduce administrative burden, support workforce retention and allow organizations to focus resources on achieving outcomes rather than repeatedly applying for short-term funding.
4. Expand support for proactive wildfire mitigation, including prescribed burning, fuel management, FireSmart initiatives and improved risk mapping. Investing in prevention and preparedness can help protect communities, critical infrastructure and businesses while reducing the economic disruption and long-term costs associated with increasingly severe wildfire seasons.
5. Partner with the City of Calgary and other stakeholders to advance the Foothills Multisport Fieldhouse. The project would address a significant gap in Calgary’s year-round sport and event infrastructure, support community recreation and high-performance sport, and strengthen Calgary’s ability to attract major sporting events and associated economic activity.
6. Increase provincial support for Calgary’s water and wastewater infrastructure so funding better reflects population growth, infrastructure needs and Calgary’s role in supporting regional and economic development. Provincial infrastructure funding should provide Calgary with fair, per-capita treatment comparable to other Alberta municipalities, while also reflected demonstrated infrastructure need and population growth. Particular attention should be given to water and wastewater infrastructure that enables housing development, strengths system resilience, supports regional growth and advances major economic opportunities such as the Prairie Economic Gateway.